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Writing as Business
'Chapter I' "Mr. Booker was a hard-working professor of literature, by no means without talent, by no means without influence, and by no means without a conscience. But, from the nature of the struggles in which he had been engaged, by compromises which had gradually been driven upon him by the encroachment of brother authors on the one side and by the demands on the other of employers who looked only to their profits, he had fallen into a routine of work which it was very difficult to be scrupulous, and almost impossible to maintain the delicacies of a literary conscience. He was now a bald-headed old man of sixty with a large family of daughters, one of whom was a widow dependent on him with two little children. He had five hundred a year for editing the 'Literary Chronicle,' which, through his energy, had become a valuable property. He wrote for magazines, and brought out some book of his own almost annually." (10-11) #Writing as Business "But he was quite alive to tha fact that a fabourable notice in the 'Breakfast Table' of his very thoughtful work, called the 'New Tale of a Tub,' would serve him, even though written by the hand of a female literary charlatan [ Lady Carbury ], and he would have no compunction as to repaying the service by fulsome praise in the 'Literary Chronicle'" (12). #Writing as Business "He was an adept at this sort of work, and knew well how to review such a book as Lady Carbury's 'Criminal Queens,' without bestowing much trouble on the reading. He could almost do it without cutting the book, so that its value for purposes of after sale might not be injured. And yet Mr. Booker was an honest man, and had set his face persistently against many literary malpractices. Stretched-out type, insufficient lines, and the French habit of meandering with a few words over an entire page, had been rebuked by him with conscientious strenght. He was supposed to be rather an Aristides among reviewers. But circumstanced as he was he could not oppose himself altogether to the usages of the time. 'Bad; of course it is bad,' he said to a young friend who was working with him on his periodical. 'Who doubts that? How many very bad things are there that we do! But if we were to attempt to reform all our bad ways at once, we should never do any good thing. I am not strong enough to put the world straight, and I doubt if you are'" (12). #Writing as Business #Dishonesty 'Chapter VII' “The ‘Criminal Queens’ might be a great literary success. She [ Lady Carbury ] almost thought that it would be a success. Messrs. Leadham and Loiter, the publishers, were civil to her. Mr. Broune had promised. Mr. Booker had said that he would see what could be done. She had gathered from Mr. Alf ’s caustic and cautious words that the book would be noticed in the ‘Evening Pulpit’” (57). #WritingAsBusiness “If only by the end of this season Henrietta could be engaged to her cousin, Felix be the husband of the richest bride in Europe, and she [ Lady Carbury ] the acknowledged author of the cleverest book of the year, what a Paradise of triumph might still be open to her after all her troubles!” (57) #WritingAsBusiness 'Chapter XI' “Her [ Lady Carbury ] great work had come out, -- the ‘Criminal Queens’, -- and had been very widely reviewed” (87). Mr. Alf’ s subordinate, Jones, reviewed the book and “had pulled it to pieces with almost rabid malignity,” and pointed out all the historical errors. #Press #Writing as Business “There is the review intended to sell a book, -- which comes out immediately after the appearance of the book, or sometimes before it; the review which gives reputation, but does not affect the sale, and which comes a little later; the review which snuffs a book out quietly; the review which is to raise or lower the author a single peg, or two pegs, as the case may be; the review which is suddenly to make an author, and the review which is to crush him” (88) The crushing reviews are the most popular, readable, and their authors at times declare they will crush a “man,” and “declare that he has accomplished the deed” (88). #Press #Writing as Business “Lady Carbury had been crushed by the ‘Evening Pulpit.’ We may fancy that it was not easy work, and that Mr. Alf’s historical Mr. Jones was not forced to fatigue himself by the handling of many books of reference. The errors did lie a little near the surface; and the whole scheme of the work, with its pandering to bad tastes by pretended revelations of frequently fabulous crime, was reprobated by Mr. Jones’s very best manner. But the poor authoress, though utterly crushed, and reduced to little more than literary pulp for an hour or two, was not destroyed” (88). #Press #Writing as Business Lady Carbury finds evidence that she is right about one of the historical facts from the “Criminal Queens,” and goes to her publisher Mr. Leadham to prove it. Mr. Leadham doesn’t care who was right and begs Lady Carbury to let it rest because “he knew very well that the ‘Evening Pulpit’ would surely get the better of any mere author in such a contention” (89). Lady Carbury cries at the injustice and because she is even more offended since Mr. Alf is her “particular friend” (89). Mr. Leadham persuades Lady Carbury that the bad review won’t do the book’s sale any harm because “A book of that sort couldn’t hope to go on very long, you know” (89). Mr. Leadham mentions that the book got decent reviews from the “Breakfast Table” and the “Pulpit,” and tells Lady Carbury that she will get some money, but “not to imagine that it could be very much” (89). #Press #Writing as Business Lady Carbury reviews Mr. Booker ’s book in the “Breakfast Table,” by convincing Mr. Broune to allow her with flirtation. Mr. Booker is dissatisfied with the review Lady Carbury writes because it is rubbish, but Mr. Booker also knows that his article about the “Criminal Queens” in the “Literary Chronicle” “would also be rubbish” (90). Mr. Booker made no attempt to read the book and only spent “perhaps an hour” on both the reading and writing required for the review. “He could have reviewed such a book when he was three parts asleep” (90). #Press #Writing as Business Mr. Booker is disappointed that he should have “to descend so low in literature,” without realizing that he is making a choice, and that he could choose “to starve, honestly, if no other honest mode of carrying on his career was open to him” (90-91). However, he pacifies himself by saying that someone else would do what he was doing if he wasn’t doing it (91). #Press #Writing as Business #Dishonesty “But the review in the ‘Morning Breakfast Table’ was the making of Lady Carbury ’s book, as far as it ever was made” (91). His review claimed “It was the very book that had been wanted for years,” and that it was “a work of infinite research and brilliant imagination combined” (91). #Press #Writing as Business #Dishonesty “Therefore, though the crushing had been very real, there had also been some elation; and as a net result, Lady Carbury was disposed to think that her literary career might yet be a success” (91). #Writing as Business Lady Carbury has her literary friends over on Tuesday evenings: “Madame Melmotte and her daughter [ Marie Melmotte ] were already there, -- and many others, of whom the majority were devoted to literature. Among them Mr. Alf was in the room, and was at this very moment discussing Lady Carbury’ s book with Mr. Booker ” (94). #Writing as Business Mr. Alf “had been quite graciously received, as though he had not authorised the crushing. Lady Carbury had given him her hand with that energy of affection with which she was wont to welcome her literary friends, and had simply thrown one glance of appeal into his eyes as she looked into his face, -- as though asking him how he had found it in his heart to be so cruel to one so tender, so unprotected, so innocent as herself. ‘I cannot stand this kind of thing,’ said Mr. Alf , to Mr. Booker . ‘There’s a regular system of touting got abroad, and I mean to trample it down’” (94). #Press #Writing as Business #Sincerity Mr. Alf : “I’ve the greatest possible regard for our friend here; -- but her book is a bad book, a throughly rotten book, an unblushing compilation from half-a-dozen works of established reputation, in pilfering from which she has almost always managed to misapprehend her facts, and to muddle her dates. Then she writes me and asks me to do the best I can for her. I have done the best I could” (94). #Press #Writing as Business #Sincerity Mr. Alf claims that he has no control over what his reviewers say about the books, but Lady Carbury “thought rightly, that Mr. Alf ’s Mr. Jones had taken direct orders from his editor, as to his treatment of the ‘Criminal Queens’” (96). #Writing as Business #Press #Dishonesty 'Chapter XII' "She [ Lady Carbury ] had never really determined what it was that might make her happy, -- having some hazy aspiration after social distinction and literary fame, in which was ever commingled solicitude respecting money” (99). #Writing as Business 'Chapter XVI' “Then she [ Lady Carbury ] returned, and shut herself up in her bedroom, and worked for an hour or two at a paper which she was writing for the ‘Breakfast Table.’ Nobody should ever accuse her justly of idleness” (131). #Writing as Business #Press